RAMMS Richmond Marathon, Half and 8K
We witnessed running greatness in 2019
On October 12th, along the flat roads of Prater Park in Vienna, Austria, Eliud Kipchoge did the unimaginable. He banned together with a team of 41 professional pacers to show the world it is possible to break the two-hour marathon barrier. He ran 26.2 miles in a blistering 1:59:40.
On November 16th, along the hilly roads of Richmond, Virginia, Run A Myelin My Shoes did the unimaginable also. We banned together to show the world it is possible to exercise despite the physical barriers of Multiple Sclerosis. We ran and walked in our own blistering speeds.
The second annual meeting of Run A Myelin My Shoes, also affectionately known as RAMMS, was at the Richmond Marathon, Half Marathon and 8K. Our team tripled in just one year. We grew from 96 teammates in Detroit to an astounding 287 MS Warriors and MS Support Heroes in Richmond.
Virtual Teammates
I followed suit from last year and recruited virtual teammates on all seven contents. I also raised the bar by setting the goal to have representation from all 50 states. We fell short by six states, but it was an incredible effort by my teammates who were madly recruiting virtual participants until the day before the big event!
Our virtual teammates ran distances ranging from 5K races; 8K-10K neighborhood fun runs with friends; half marathons on road, trail and indoor track; marathon relay on treadmill (as our 5 teammates in Antarctica); to full marathons. We witnessed wonderful accomplishments, such as Jessie Ace running her first 10K in England and Daniel West running his first half marathon in Kentucky. Megan White took it upon herself and plotted out a marathon route on a canal trail in Arizona and recruited friends and family to be her support crew. Other virtual teammates walked anywhere from one mile to 5K and beyond with the loving support of their care partner (like Anita and PC in Mumbai, India). Eleven members of the Pinder family walked in solidarity for Gary along Jenkins Crag in the Lake District of England. For the second year in a row, Jade Hartland hiked Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. And our beloved friends in Japan mapped a challenge walk on the streets of Asakusa, Tokyo. I am so impressed by our virtual teammates. It shows great fortitude to plan an activity, train for it, and actually do it! I am so grateful for their participation and for being part of our team. They were certainly on my mind as I ran in Richmond and they gave me motivation to keep moving.
Richmond Teammates
Since our team grew three-fold in one year, the carbo-loading dinner was not only a reunion but it was also a first-time meeting for most.
We spent all year getting to know each other on our secret Facebook page. We shared typical running tips like favorite running shoes, dealing with plantar fasciitis, and nutrition before a long run. But the topics were also deeper and very pertinent to MS like favorite running shoes for drop foot, dealing with spasticity in the feet, and possible foods to eat before a long run to help with MS fatigue. We posted pictures of victories like finishing a long run in the heat of summer, earning a shiny new race medal, climbing a mountain, or the finish line at Bike MS. We are like-minded people striving for the same goal… to stay active. It was heartwarming to see teammates come together to hug, cry and laugh.
Richmond Marathon, Half and 8K
Many of us stayed in Richmond at the Marriott Downtown and there was a lot of buzz in the hotel lobby on race morning. RAMMS was the second largest team in Richmond. The top team was a group of people who actually live in Virginia, so in my mind we won the largest team challenge because we had to travel further. In any case, there were a lot of blue RAMMS team shirts milling about the hotel and it was electric!
Weather was not too bad. It was in the high 30’s and mild wind. Most people with MS are heat intolerant and prefer cooler weather. In general, nerves don’t function well in the heat, so hot weather is particularly difficult for people with MS because the lesions in the brain and spinal column impede signals even more. MS symptoms feel worse when overheated. However, there are those who are opposite and don’t fare well in the cold. A couple of cold intolerant teammates had issues like spasticity in the legs. I actually have trouble in both heat and cold. I had issues with my overactive bladder and had to stop to pee seven times during the marathon.
I felt a lot of pride and joy in seeing my teammates on the course. Even though it was chilly, we all wore our short-sleeved team shirts over long sleeves. I could pick out teammates in front of me, as well as see the blue shirts passing me! Bravo!
The marathon course was pretty. There were a lot of leafy neighborhoods and parks and a scenic section along the river. We saw Bill Fitzgerald, one of the anchorpeople for CBS6. He interviewed me a few days prior and said he would come out to cheer for us. Spectators set up tailgate parties and Brian stopped for beer and pretzels. Richmond is ranked as America’s Friendliest Marathon and we certainly felt the good vibes… and that is not the beer talking!
Brian and I finished under 5 hours and that was the goal. We ran another marathon three weeks prior and the two times were within 30 seconds of each other! Being consistent is very gratifying to me!
I am so proud of all my teammates. Ten ran their first marathons, including mother-daughter team Michelle and Melissa Wolf. Melissa registered for the marathon in secret and trained in secret. Melissa let the cat out of the bag at the expo when she told her mom that she was going run the marathon, too! Koreen Burrow came to Richmond in the middle of her Appalachian Trail adventure hike to run her first marathon (after the race, she went back on the trail to finish the last several hundred miles!). My favorite quote of the day was a teammate who said, “If you would have told me a year ago that I could run a marathon, I would have said you’re fucking crazy!” I love the tears of joy and raw emotions of running!
All of my teammates are wonderful and I know I am not giving everyone proper justice in this short blog post. I will do my best to post inspirational stories about them.
By the Numbers
- 287 Total teammates (127 with MS)
- 162 Richmond teammates (68 with MS)
- 125 Virtual teammates (59 with MS)
- Virtual teammates came from all 7 continents: Antarctica, Australasia, Asia, Africa, Europe, South America and North America
- We represented 14 countries: Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India, South Africa, Austria, England, Italy, Germany, Spain, Argentina, Canada, and USA
- Richmond runners and virtual teammates represented 44 states plus DC: AL, AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, ME, MD, ME, MI, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, NV, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY
- We even represented 4 Canadian provinces: Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, and Ontario. Perhaps 2020 will see all 10 provinces!
Thank You and Next Steps
All of this organization could not be done without the help of many players.
Hanger Clinic and Thuasne USA sponsored our team shirts. When we placed the order in July, I had 177 teammates. Mike Benning, Marketing Manager at Hanger, told me to up the order to 300. That made me nervous because I did not know if I could recruit that many people! Well we did and the few extra shirts went to Hanger Clinic and Thuasne staff.
Teammate Kalia Guheen designed our awesome shirts. The vendor was Headsweats and they use sublimation printing, so Kalia’s design really popped and looked so rad!
Brian mailed all of the shirts to the virtual teammates. He mailed 130 shirts in 79 packages. His job included writing out customs forms in triplicate for the overseas parcels. We live in a small town and the post office only has 1-2 clerks at a time working the front counters. Whenever we would walk into the post office with a pile of envelopes, the employees would cringe! Brian had to be strategic about balancing the amount of international and domestic packages so as not to take up too much of the clerk’s time. We were surprise to learned that they are actually monitored on how many customers they serve an hour! So, we never went in with more than 4-5 packages. We ended up making 18 trips to the post office.
Rachael Nuwash, Associate Vice President Endurance Events at the MS Society, helped me with planning and logistics and was also my savior! I will not get into the stressful details of the Marriott hotel room drama and the scare of having to pay over $6,000 in rooms that were cancelled last minute. I’ll just say Rachael is passionate for our cause and was able to eloquently bring that to the negotiation table. Marriott finally understood how special RAMMS is and they forgave the room attrition!
Teammates Jeff Urschler and Cindy Eisenlohr, MS Society, Biogen and Hanger Clinic sponsored our team carbo-loading dinner. It was a fabulous evening. We had sponsor tables with demonstrations, giveaways and literature. A representative from all our sponsors came up on stage and did a short thank you speech and Dr. Carrie Klypchack from Texas A&M University – Commerce added an extra element of excitement with awesome raffle prizes from her school!
We ended the evening with a check presentation. Eight of us fundraised for MS Society’s platform Finish MS. At the end of 2019, the total raised was $14,091.77. This also included the donations made by all of our virtual teammates.
I would also like to give a special thank you to Coach Kelly Williamson from Durata Training and Meat Fight. She wrote a monthly newsletter to our team to not only motivate us to keep pushing forward in our journey but she provided insights like training plans, nutrition, injury prevention, cross training, and rest and recovery. She did this all on her free time and even wrote ahead of schedule before giving birth to her first child. She is a master planner and compassionate coach. I am very grateful for all the work Coach Kelly poured into the team!
The really good-looking, professional quality photos in this post are courtesy of Michael Moberly from Texas! Thank you Michael!
The quotes used in this post were from my teammates. It is their friendship, encouragement and inspiration that keeps me motivated to make RAMMS an annual event. I want to grow in 2020 and reach out to more people with MS to show them it is possible to break those barriers!
Stay tuned! xoxo
